Feeling short of breath on stairs, unusually tired, or noticing swelling in your ankles? These can be early signs of heart failure — and in 2026, getting them checked early is more worthwhile than at any time in the past, because the treatment landscape has changed dramatically. The gateway to that care is a simple, non-invasive scan: the echocardiogram.
An echocardiogram (or “echo”) is a painless ultrasound of your heart — no radiation, no needles. Using a probe and gel, it shows your heart’s chambers, valves and pumping action in real time.
Its single most important measurement is the ejection fraction (EF) — the percentage of blood your heart pumps out with each beat, and the key number used to diagnose and classify heart failure.
“Heart failure” doesn’t mean your heart is about to stop — it means it isn’t pumping or filling as efficiently as it should. It comes in two main forms:
Telling them apart requires an echo.
What’s new in 2026: For years, patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) — nearly half of all heart-failure cases, and common in older adults — had very few proven treatment options. That has changed.
Following updated international heart-failure guidelines, a class of medicines (SGLT2 inhibitors) is now recommended as foundational therapy across the entire ejection-fraction spectrum, including HFpEF, shown to reduce hospitalisations.
In practical terms: an early echocardiogram is now far more actionable, because whatever your ejection fraction, there’s likely an evidence-based treatment path — but only once the type is confirmed.
An echo is only as valuable as its interpretation. At Prime Cardiology on St Kilda Rd, echocardiography in Melbourne — including transthoracic, stress and, where needed, trans-oesophageal echo — is performed with state-of-the-art equipment and read by a subspecialty imaging cardiologist, Dr Vahid Moosavi, who can place your ejection fraction in the full clinical picture and, if needed, extend to cardiac MRI for deeper answers.
See your GP, or call Prime Cardiology on (03) 9003 2510 to arrange a specialist echocardiogram.
Call (03) 9003 2510Disclaimer: General information only! not a substitute for personal medical advice. If you have severe or sudden breathlessness or chest pain, seek urgent care or call 000.
